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| Bell tower in Dubrovnik |
A few things stand out about our 2008 visit to Dubrovnik. Chuck and I both remember setting out on a shore excursion and seeing a man near us on the bus who had a New Zealand passport. Since we would be in New Zealand on our 2009 Grand South Pacific, Australia, and New Zealand cruise, Chuck leaned over and asked him about New Zealand. That began a friendship that has lasted for six years. We even visited Brian and Margaret in their Gisborne, NZ, home on the 2009 cruise, and last year they met us in Napier, NZ, where we spent a delightful day visiting the gannet colonies. So we immediately associate Dubrovnik with the acquaintance that led to a friendship.
On that shore excursion, we visited the delightful village
of Cavtat. On the way back we stopped in
Dubrovnik for a local folkloric show, after which we were whisked through Old
Town.
We had wished we could have spent some time poking around
Old Town back then, never dreaming that we’d have a second chance to come to
Dubrovnik. So we opted to do Dubrovnik
on our own rather than booking a shore excursion.
Dubrovnik, like several other places we’ve visited on this
cruise, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Located on the Adriatic Sea,
Dubrovnik is a busy sea port, competing with Venice for the number of boats and
ships it services. Dubrovnik was founded
in the 7th Century by two different groups – the Slavs and refugees
from the nearby town of Cavtat. Around the 12th Century, these
groups merged and walls were built around the city as a defense against those
attempting to conquer Dubrovnik. These walls today surround what is now
considered Old Town in Dubrovnik. As recently as 1991, Dubrovnik was under siege
at the time of the breakup of the old nation of Yugoslavia.
After the disappointment I experienced in Venice, I really
was hopeful that I’d be able to enjoy some time in Dubrovnik. Very fortunately we met with far more success
than we did in Venice. Chuck asked the
Location Guide Brett if a wheelchair was feasible in Old Town. The answer was yes! Then we had to check and see if the shuttle
could accommodate a wheelchair. The
answer was yes!
Alice had no other plans than to go into town either, so she
asked if she could come with us. We
always welcome her company and were happy to have her with us. Chuck, in particular, I’m sure, was happy
because she is always ready to push the wheelchair for awhile. Having had an adopted son who had severe mobility
issues, she is used to dealing with wheelchairs.
We were off the ship at 9:30 and got on the shuttle. A few minutes later it was on its way into
town. We were dropped off at a Tourist
Information Center just outside the city walls.
Chuck went in and got a map while we admired a huge painted egg,
depicting the countryside during the four seasons of the year. He said it was
similar to the one he saw in the cathedral in Kotor, Montenegro last week; it
had the date “2009” on it as Kotor’s said “2014” so Dubrovnik had probably
received the beautiful egg in that year from The Vatican as Kotor did this
year. Then off we went toward the city
gates. It was quite a downward slope to
get to the Old Town, so I hopped out of the wheelchair and walked down the
slope so they wouldn’t have to try and defy gravity as they pushed me. Chuck took the wheelchair to the bottom,
where I could sit down, and then went back and got some of the pictures he’d
missed taking on the walk down.
Once at the bottom of the slope, everything along the main
street through Old Town was flat. Since
it was mostly a pedestrian walkway (other than deliveries), we had no problems
negotiating our way down the street. We
enjoyed checking out the shop fronts, eyeing some that I wanted to visit on the
return trip. We had gotten there early
enough that there weren’t yet that many tourists, but within about a half hour,
there were throngs of people, many being led through town on walking tours,
making our navigation of the street a little more difficult. We got to the other end of the main street
and came to an area where they were erecting an outdoor stage for some kind of
festival. Alice understood that it would
be a wine festival, and there were certainly a lot of people interested in what
was going on – we even saw a news crew getting ready to broadcast.
Chuck parked the wheelchair next to a large church and
walked around getting the lay of the land.
He returned saying there wasn’t much else, but that the church was
interesting. He even got a rare picture
of a nun in her habit arranging flowers by a statue of Christ. Alice and I went in also to see the beautiful
sanctuary.
We started walking back to the top of the street, and I took
the opportunity to do a little bit of shopping since I hadn’t had much of a
chance at all while I was in Italy. I
did manage to get a few things. Alice
wanted to stop for something to drink, so she and I selected a restaurant
terrace on one of the many narrow side streets and sat down while Chuck continued
on his way. Our intent was to finish up
the cokes and head back to the shuttle, allowing Chuck time to wander like he
so enjoys doing while in port. As we sat
and visited, a couple sat down behind us.
The man took something out and started to play with it, I looked around
Alice to see what he had, and she turned around to see it. Our curiosity was definitely aroused. He told us that it was a frog that he’d
gotten in a market just off the main street and behind the church we had
visited. The woman just shook her head
and said, “It’s a man thing.” Alice and
I shook our heads and both agreed that we loved it. So off we went after paying for our cokes
(quite possibly the most expensive cokes we’d ever purchased – about $4.25 for
an 8-ounce bottle) to find this frog salesman.
We both fell in love with them, but since he only took cash, we had to
do some money juggling to be able to pay for each of us to get one of these
things. But we both came away the proud
owners of deep-croaking bullfrogs made in Croatia – probably the most unique
item I’ve bought on the entire trip.
As we approached the market to search out the frogs, I heard
someone say, “Well… two familiar faces!”
Chuck had spotted us. He said he
had run into one of our cruise friends who told him that to climb to the top of
the town wall and walk it would cost $20.
Chuck decided that he didn’t need to spend his dollars to walk the wall
so came back down. He wheeled me a ways
down the street until we split off to return to the main street and he
continued his explorations of the town.
Alice and I continued back up the street, through the walled
gate, and up the ramp to the square where we found a shuttle waiting to take us
back to the ship. Both of us were happy
with our purchases for the day.
Chuck returned about a half hour after I did. He had thoroughly enjoyed a leisurely walk
through Old Town and had climbed many stairs up one of the side streets to get
as near to the walls as he could. Beyond
a few shops and outdoor cafes near the main street were residential homes which
continued all the way to the street just below the city walls. He could hear
what seemed to be the sound of a basketball bouncing, and being curious, he
sought out the sound. He looked through
an opening and discovered a few teenage boys, way up at the top of the hill, in
a small area, shooting baskets. Not what
we would have expected, I guess, but we do know that the Croatians are pretty
good basketball players! He got a few
pictures, and when he went back down to the main street, he counted 139 narrow
stone stairs. I obviously couldn’t have
done that one! And I can’t imagine doing
that every day, sometimes multiple times during the day, just to get into and
out of my house! My house in New Lenox
works much better for me.
Although we didn’t do an excursion in Dubrovnik, we
thoroughly enjoyed getting a bit of the local flavor that could be found in the
city’s Old Town!
BT
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